Erdogan Accuses Israel of 'Genocide'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused Israel of attempting a "systematic genocide" of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza, in his strongest attack yet on the Jewish state over self-defense campaign Operation Protective Edge.

"We are witnessing this systematic genocide every Ramadan. The Western world remains silent; so does the Islamic world," Erdogan told a meeting of Islamic scholars in Istanbul to mark the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"Because those who lost their lives are Palestinian, you can't hear their voices," he added.

"Why are you running away from me - Israeli sperm!" he shrieked, slapping the protester, in video footage uploaded to Sozcu TV. The word "sperm" is seen as a particularly offensive insult in Turkish. The footage later shows security forces beating the man.

In 1998, prior to his stint as PM, Erdogan - then mayor of Istanbul - infamously declared that "the Jews have begun to crush the Muslims in Palestine, in the name of Zionism. Today, the image of the Jews is no different than that of the Nazis."